Broom Magick for Spring Cleaning

When I sat down to write my latest book, The Witch’s Broom, I suddenly realized that there were a lot of ways to use a magickal broom that I hadn’t been utilizing. Mind you, I’d been doing magickal spring (and fall) cleaning for years, but my main tools had been the basics: salt and water and a sage smudge stick. Which worked just great, don’t get me wrong, but there is something quite fitting about using the magick of a broom to clean and clear the energy of your house, especially after a long winter.

There’s an entire ritual for doing so in the book, so I’m not going to try to recreate that here. But I will share the basics, in case the growing sunshine and longer days have made you suddenly feel like flinging open the windows and clearing out the stagnant energy of the cold, dark season. (This also works really well if there has been any kind of turmoil in the home, no matter what time of year it is—arguments or illness or that sort of thing.)

Really, using broom magick is pretty simple—mostly you just sweep, but add in INTENTION and FOCUS, which as we all know, are at the core of a witchcraft practice. You can also ramp up the energy of your magickal work a bit by using some herbs, consecrated water, and a few other extras. I’ll get to that in a minute.

There are two approaches to using a broom for magickal house cleansing. The first is when you use your everyday household broom (the one you always use for sweeping the floors) but add in some magickal elements along with your focus and intent. The second is for those folks who happen to have a broom that is dedicated to magickal use only (only used in rituals and not for regular cleaning).

To use a regular broom, you can give it some magickal oomph by smudging it with sage (or the cleansing incense of your choice), and/or dipping it into some water that you have blessed ahead of time—either by putting it out in the moonlight, or putting it on your altar, or adding any magickal oils. It is also nice to add a squeeze of lemon juice, which is energetically good for cleaning, as well as smelling very pleasant.

If you are using a magickal broom, you probably don’t need to do anything extra to it, although it certainly won’t hurt to give it a “freshening” boost.

Start by standing still in front of your altar or at your front door, and visualizing the broom glowing with a powerful magickal light, filled with the power to clear away any negative or stagnant energy. If you want, you can say the following:

Bless the witch and bless the broomBless the spirit that lies insideSweeping clear each household roomSo peace and harmony there reside*

[From The Witch’s Broom, Llewellyn 2014]

Then walk from room to room, sweeping as you go, and continuing to visualize the light from the broom whisking away anything that doesn’t belong in your home. If you are using a regular broom, you may wish to actually sweep the floors, wipe up cobwebs, get the dust off the top of radiators, and so on. If you are using a magickal broom, you probably won’t want to get it sullied, so in this case merely concentrate on moving the energy instead of the dirt. When you have gone through the whole home, you can sweep the last of the negativity and old crap out the front or back door.

Then thank the broom for its hard work, and enjoy your newly invigorated living space.

Deborah Blake is the author of Everyday Witch Book of Rituals (Llewellyn 2012), Witchcraft on a Shoestring (Llewellyn, 2010) as well as The Everyday Witch A to Z Spellbook (2010) and several other books. She lives in a 100-year-old farmhouse in upstate New York with five cats who supervise all her activities, both magickal and mundane.